The Brilliant Thinking Behind Oklahoma’s Viral $1 Home

Dan and Sharla Bradley took a big gamble when they listed their Edmond, Oklahoma home for just $1 earlier this month. Yes, you read that right. One dollar.

If you’re thinking there’s got to be something seriously wrong with a house listed for a dollar, think again. The home at 9852 West Charter Oak Road is a 4,000-square-foot, six-year-old beauty with four bedrooms, four baths, a swimming pool, and more, all situated on a manicured two-acre lot. Based on comps, it’s valued at about $413,000. The $1 asking price was a calculated move to drive a bidding war.

"I often tell sellers that we could price their home for a dollar and the market would determine what the sales price should be," the home's listing agent, Ryan Hukill at Keller Williams, explained to Realtor.com. "This time, I had some sellers who were bold enough to take me up on trying that theory out."

And it paid off. Their first open house reportedly reeled in around 60 buyers, and garnered seven bids by the deadline last week. A week later, the home is officially under contract. While Hukill won’t share specifics with Realtor.com until the deal is officially done, he did say, "we ended up a little bit above what the sellers initially thought they'd get."

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So, should every home be listed for a single buckaroo? "It's an excellent strategy that I've recommended in the past. With the right marketing, this will make your home the talk of the town," Keller Williams real estate agent Cedric Stewart told Realtor.com "Auction-style bidding draws something out of people and often causes them to pay slightly more than they normally would."

This kind of real estate gamble can also come with pitfalls, namely less serious candidates who only clog up the process. But overall, Hukill sees it as a success. "I've gotten a lot of comments along the lines of 'This is a brilliant idea, why didn't I think of that before?' I don't know if it's brilliant, but it's a conversation I've been having with sellers for 10 years," he concludes. "And these sellers are very happy; they had a lot of fun with it. They were excited to try something different."